10.03.2011

3 Bikes In < 10 Months

I cannot be blamed for the last one--my hubby ordered it before I even had any interest in mountain biking (I'm still not sure that I will ever have as much interest in mountain biking as I do in road riding and duathlon).

The bike came last week and we got out for a brief ride at a tiny little wooded park near us. It was pretty nice. I got some dirt on my bike, which made it happy, I think. "It" has been named "Vera," after Jayne's (of Firefly/Serenity) favorite gun. Funny, since I'm not a fan of guns, but it just seemed sort of fitting for some unexplainable reason. And in a year or two my DS will likely inherit Vera (which is a hair small for me in a size Petite/XS. I'd like to be a bit less upright. Derek flipped the stem and stacked all of the spacers on top, but I'd still be happy a bit less vertical). He's a big fan of Jayne and Jayne's favorite gun (*sigh* boys...), so he's OK with his future bike having a girl's name. He may end up inheriting my CX bike in the future, as well, if I were to upgrade. Another bike with a "female's" name ("Little Rock," from Zombieland).

The coolest thing discovered on our ride--a little lake/pond that I never knew existed. And it's gorgeous. I snapped one photo of it with my phone, but it's not from the most scenic vantage point. I'll have to get out there again for a photo-op once the leaves are in full color.

Weds. we're going to meet up with several of the women who ended up with clones of my bike for some ride time at some longer/better trails an hour away. I'm looking forward to it...assuming I don't break anything so close to our JDRF ride in Death Valley.

Saturday was our last team ride. There were 2 loops totaling 70+ miles. I skipped the first loop, since DS could in no way tolerate the cold (windchill was ~32) with his minimal body fat. The 2nd loop was 41 miles and was enough. Fighting the wind really took a lot out of me. I felt like I'd done a metric century.

Since I haven't done a single day of mileage over 50 miles in 4 weeks (not since the Labor Day duathlon + bonus team ride) I'm planning to get in something in the 65-75 mile neighborhood, tomorrow. Looks like it will be a stunningly perfect day for it. Then I will be good and wiped-out for mountain biking on Weds. (probably not a good plan, but I'll have 10 days of recovery before my 105 miles in Death Valley).

Speaking of the ride, today several checks were applied to my ride account that put me over the $4000 minimum fundraising goal/requirement. This does not include $230 worth of checks that have yet to be applied. Here I was worried that I'd struggle to raise the money. I underestimated the kindness and generosity of my friends and family. I shouldn't have done that--my friends are my friends BECAUSE they are such amazing, spectacular people!

My bowling fundraiser was last weekend and it brought $220 to my ride account, as well. Next time we'll do one in the Spring, when there are fewer things competing (like ArtPrize and Saturday football games). I'd love to raise at least $500 with a future event. Even more than that I'd like to see diabetes eradicated, but until that happens, we'll keep bringing in money so that the JDRF can keep up the advancements in research to that cure and the treatments that improve the lives and life expectancies of our friends.

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